On Feb. 11, the LIGO observatory announced the first-ever direct detection of gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of spacetime predicted in 1915 by physicist Albert Einstein. The waves originated from the merger of distant black holes, envisioned here in a computer simulation.

The U.S.-based LSC and the European collaboration Virgo have long been close partners in the search for gravitational waves. The first detection of gravitational waves, announced on February 11, 2016, was a milestone in physics and astronomy; it confirmed a major prediction of Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity, and marked the beginning of the new field of gravitational-wave astronomy.

LIGO, a system of two identical detectors carefully constructed to detect incredibly tiny vibrations from passing gravitational waves, was conceived and built by MIT and Caltech researchers, funded by the National Science Foundation, with significant contributions from other U.S. and international partners. The twin detectors are located in Livingston, Louisiana and Hanford, Washington.

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